I can't let the holiday season go by without an annual complaint about the bastardization of some Christmas tradition. In 2012, and again in 2013, it was Christmas cards. In 2014, it was Christmas songs.
This year, it's about Christmas gift exchanges. I'm mostly referring to an event where an inane gift is blindly purchased to be given to another family member or co-worker, without an idea of what the receiver might actually want.
(I want to note that I have disdain for ANY type of co-worker gifting, often couched in the name 'Secret Santa'. It doesn't matter it it's known what that person may want, because you can be sure most workers don't want feel as if they are being forced to spend time and money buying a Christmas gift for a randomly chosen co-worker.)
Growing up, it was a common practice for a family member to draw a sibling's name and buy a gift for that person. This was a simple process, and the person could actually find out what the recipient wanted, and buy something useful.
But that wasn't good enough for my generation to pass on to their kids. No, we had to invent a silly, more elaborate gift exchange process, one that included extended family and co-workers and had no requirements related to practical gift-giving.
Blind gift exchanges may seem like fun to some folks (read: women), but what is the actual outcome? Time and money being spent on 'gifts' that are very unlikely to be used by the recipient. And to achieve that ridiculous outcome, people need to sit around for an hour or so watching undesirable presents being opened by others.
Stop the madness! Everyone would be much better off to open up their windows and throw the money spent on gift exchanges out onto the street, where perhaps a needy person could get some benefit from it.
But at least we are all honoring the birth of the Savior, right?
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